Miley Cyrus' Stunning Safety Pin Dress at the Grammys: How John Galliano Was Inspired by Himself to Create It

A common and highly applauded coup de effect is to choose a

design to step on any red carpet.

One of the most recent was the Pierre Balmain that Elle Fanning wore to the Golden Globes in early January.

While Zendaya is the true reference when it comes to recovering dresses from all eras and brands for premieres and award ceremonies.

At first glance, this is what we might have thought of one of the designs that Miley Cyrus wore at the Grammy Awards.

Specifically, the one with which she posed on the red carpet: a mesh dress that more precisely hid the most compromised parts of her anatomy.

It was actually a design created with 14,000 safety pins (which took 675 hours to manufacture) custom-made for the singer by Maison Margiela, whose creative director John Galliano seems to have been inspired by himself, as this garment is practically identical to one she wore Milla Jovovich in 1997. It was during the Cannes Film Festival that year and the model and actress chose a transparent Galliano for Dior design with strategic embroidery.

She wore it to present Luc Besson's film

in which she starred alongside Bruce Willis.

Mila Jovovich, with the John Galliano design that she wore at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, where she attended with director Luc Besson.

They presented the film 'The Fifth Element'.Alamy Stock Photo

It is a more than justified

, not only because of the similarities between both designs, but because Miley Cyrus has been one of those responsible for bringing Galliano's name back to the present day by wearing several of his

designs .

She did it especially during the year 2022, when the artist appeared on several occasions wearing British dresses from her time with Dior.

To go see the

with Pamela Anderson in the cast, she chose an asymmetrical slip-style and leopard-print dress from the collection that Galliano made for Dior in the fall of 2000. Hours later she chose another one with tiny proportions and in color black accompanying the image on his Instagram profile with the phrase: “Photograph me soon.

I wear a Galliano.”

Miley Cyrus, this February 4 on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin (FilmMagic)

Miley Cyrus has perhaps been the artist who has most insisted on the return of John Galliano in the last two years.

In addition to wearing designs from her golden period, in August 2023 she commissioned Galliano—already in charge of Margiela—to create for her the

that would illustrate the launch of her

.

For this design—a jumpsuit with certain references to the corsair aesthetic—Galliano seemed to be inspired by another design from his Co-Ed 2023 collection for Maison Margiela, transforming a dress in different shades of blue tulle into a

.

Cyrus, however, has not been the only one who has contributed to recovering Galliano's name for fashion.

Renowned women in the industry tried it before her.

In 2011, the Italian editor of

Franca Sozzani, defended the British designer in

when she perhaps was too early to do so: “Look, I understand people's point of view.

I understand that they couldn't have just told him, 'bad boy!

We forgive you, he comes back!', but it really is a shame.

And I never believed that he really believed what he said.

I think he was drunk and alone in a bar.

When people go crazy, they go crazy.

It is something very human;

"It's not something political or religious, he didn't kill anyone!"

She spoke these words in 2011 when the fall of John Galliano due to an incident in a bar in which he was accused of anti-Semitism was fully current.

After being convicted by the French courts he completely disappeared from the public eye.

In 2014 she was in the news again: her return to fashion was a reality after signing the contract with Margiela.

However, 10 more years had to pass for his return to be applauded in unison.

The last Maison Margiela Artisanal show, held on January 26 in Paris, made it definitively rise from its ashes.

His show was reminiscent of the Dior shows of the nineties, those in which with Galliano everything was possible.

With a staging without limits, a porcelain doll makeup performed by his adventure partner Pat MacGrath, a 30-minute short film made by Baz Luhrmann and countless expectant celebrities, finally, the British return through the big door of fashion was a fact.

A success that has been long in coming but perhaps comes at the right time.

Not only because enough time has passed since that incident in Paris, but because fashion also wants to offer a side of spectacle as a counterpart to the prevailing and sober silent luxury, something—excess—in which Galliano has always been an absolute reference.

It is also true of all the trends of those early 2000s that are back today, so who but himself was John Galliano going to look for the perfect inspiration?